Bee: Musselman wants Miller to go above and beyond

[kennadog]

Gosh--what I got out of this article was Musselman making/asking/demanding something of one of his players and that player saying "I will play the game the way it comes to me." It seems like the players have made it clear they do not respond to this coach. Annie.

There have been not a few comments, looks, behaviors from some of the players that indicate not much liking for Muss. Doesn't bode well for this team.

 

[fnordius]

Josh Howard is a 210-lb. swingman. The closest thing we have to that is Salmons, who is a swingman, and only 1"/3 lbs smaller. But Howard is also younger, faster, and generally more athletic. Plus he plays enough time at SF to pull down over 7 rebounds a game, and has had 8 double-doubles this year, including a 28/17/5/3blk game, despite having missed 1/5 of the season injured. He has had 44 double-doubles in his short career. We simply don't have anyone on our roster who is even vaguely like that, unless RonRon finds the fountain of youth. Garcia isn't a good comparison, but at least his age and position are about right.

Kevin is a skinny (185 lb.) SG best known for his outside offensive game. He has gotten one double-double this year, and three in his entire career. The day when he pulls down 17 rebounds and makes 3 blocks, I will pass out from shock.

With our roster, no comparison with Josh Howard works.

 

[Entity]

oh i get it now we went from offensive comparisons with Miller outside the arc to a totally new format in talking about defensive efforts. See I got caught out of the loop. Here I was thinking we were comparing offense I had no clue defense. Martin gets about 8 pts in the paint eveynight. rebounds, blks, size have nothing to do with what i was talking about with Miller at the 3pt line.

 

[Troy]

Miller only averages 1 off rebound a game we will NOT miss that at all. If anything it will draw the opposing Center farther away from the paint and thus keeping the other teams best or at least 2nd best rebounder off the defensive glass. Couldn'g you see guys like Marcus Camby or Chris Kaman only getting like 3 or 4 defensive rebounds a game because they are stretched out to the 3pt line. BUT this is a big BUT, if Miller don't hit the 3's then they will have no reason to be out there.

I know what you mean and this will bring the Center out if Brad is making his shots which will open up the basket for KMart, Salmons, Artest, Corliss, etc to drive to the basket and hopefully the big man will be too slow to get back and try to block the shot. Brad has a nice 18 footer and is fairly consistent knocking that down, why step back more and try a 3 pointer which he definately isn't good at. I've seen him hit is share of 3 pointers, but if he is confortable at knocking down the mid range shot and one quite far out, but not beyond the arc, I'd rather he take that and make 50% or so and get the 2 points, rather than chuck up a 3 pointer which obviously isn't going to be close to that %. He's still far enough from the basket to draw out the big guy to cover him. He just really needs to be more confident, he isn't a bad shooter, but like others are saying he is so unconfident at times and passes off to a guy that doesn't have as good of a shot, then the pass might be stolen and if the ball gets to the guy, isn't as good as Miller's would have been.

I guess Muss is saying he doesn't like Miller's gallop to the hoop. That is probably the most unnatural and funny thing I have seen. Brad sure is a farm boy!

 

[Troy]

They will have no reason to be out there anyway -- they will be switched off onto our PF while they guard Brad with their SF. Maybe even with a guard.

So true, Miller, like Peja doesn't have to have a big guy in his face to feel rushed and not get a good shot off. Pretty sad when you can have a PG just about fluster a 6'10" Peja & 7' Miller.

 

[fnordius]

oh i get it now we went from offensive comparisons with Miller outside the arc to a totally new format in talking about defensive efforts. See I got caught out of the loop. Here I was thinking we were comparing offense I had no clue defense. Martin gets about 8 pts in the paint eveynight. rebounds, blks, size have nothing to do with what i was talking about with Miller at the 3pt line.

I was just looking at inside game. I wouldn't expect Kevin to do like Howard and block Shaq's shots, but he would need to be able to do like Howard and hang around the basket. Making a mad dash for it and drawing a foul is great, but it's not the same thing.

I spent about an hour trying to find some stats which would give an objective basis for comparison, but couldn't find any.

Where did you find Martin's PitP stat? I would have thought it significantly lower than 8, but haven't been able to find it anywhere.

 

[Bricklayer]

As an aside on the whole Dirk/Brad/Howard thing I think somebody should just note that the Mavs finally becoming a truly great team coincided precisely with them loading up on big "true" centers in Dampier and Diop who play exclusively inside. The other team's center rarely leaves the paint with those guys on the floor, and yet the Mavs, and Howard, do quite well thank you. Dirk is a PF now.

 

[VF21]

Well, as of tonight it appears moot. Brad Miller is out "until probably after the All-Star break" with a flare-up of plantar fasciitis.

We all should have known better. We should have known this would happen.

 

[BMiller52]

Well, as of tonight it appears moot. Brad Miller is out "until probably after the All-Star break" with a flare-up of plantar fasciitis.

We all should have known better. We should have known this would happen.

Is it possible he's gonna need surgery?

 

[fnordius]

Martin gets about 8 pts in the paint eveynight.

OK, since I couldn't find any PitP stat for Martin, I tried another approach.

This year, KMart has averaged 20.9 PPG.
He has averaged 1.7 three-pointers per game. That accounts for 5.1 points.
He has hit, on average, 5.9 FTs per game.

5.1 in threes and 5.9 in FTs make 11 points.
20.9 points - 11 points = 9.9 points.

That would mean that to make 8 points in the paint, over 80% of his 2-point FGs would have to be in the paint, which seems improbable.

My guess is that he averages more like 3-4 points in the paint per game.

An average NBA team gets about 36 points in the paint, Dallas (#10 for PitP) gets 39.5. Sac has been getting 33.3. It'll be interesting to see if making Brad a perimeter player helps the team stat, or alters Martin's stats significantly.

I doubt that it will, but we will see.

 

[Entity]

since you couldn't find exact stats and just guess i found them. At 82games.com you can look at individual player stats.

Josh howard averages 4.4 pitp and only .5 pts off of dunks per game

Kevin Martin averages 4.8 ptip and 1.6 pts off dunks per game

so by comparison with REAL stats It looks as though Martin gets 6.4 pitp and Howard is a 4.9

So while it was a good idea to try and break it down like you did with what might be this and might be that the true story is as i figured Martin is better offensivily from top to bottom.

 

[Circa_1985_Fan]

Is it possible he's gonna need surgery?

I'd probably lean to the 'yes' answer to that question. This injury has bothered Brad for a bit now, and doesnt seem to be getting totally healed. Look at Peja...look at Christie...going back even further, Billy Owens. Judging from the track record of this injury on other players, and the progression that Brad has/hasnt had since it started with him...I'd say that some sort of surgery down the road looks possible.

 

[fnordius]

since you couldn't find exact stats and just guess i found them. At 82games.com you can look at individual player stats.

Yeah, I am aware of those, but those aren't PitP stats, or even well defined. They are tip-ins, dunks, "close" and "jumpers." When you look for definitions, you get

[SIZE=-1]Jump -- which amounts to anything beyond a close in range
Close -- as the name implies is any kind of field goal attempt from short range

http://www.82games.com/comm23.htm

So they're not even specifying a distance, let alone PitP. If someone hits a layup from 6 feet left of the rim, one would assume that would qualify as a "close" shot, although it wouldn't be in the paint. What if it was from 12 feet to the side of the rim, nowhere near the paint? Probably still "close," but you never know. 15 feet? 17? The lane is 19 feet long, what about 19? They aren't telling us what measurements they're using, so there wasn't any way for me to even guess at PitP from those.[/SIZE]

 

[6th]

Yeah, I am aware of those, but those aren't PitP stats, or even well defined. They are tip-ins, dunks, "close" and "jumpers." When you look for definitions, you get

http://www.82games.com/comm23.htm

So they're not even specifying a distance, let alone PitP. If someone hits a layup from 6 feet left of the rim, one would assume that would qualify as a "close" shot, although it wouldn't be in the paint. What if it was from 12 feet to the side of the rim, nowhere near the paint? Probably still "close," but you never know. 15 feet? 17? The lane is 19 feet long, what about 19? They aren't telling us what measurements they're using, so there wasn't any way for me to even guess at PitP from those.[/size][/font]

Damn, fnordius! Mad respect!!!

 

[fnordius]

Damn, fnordius! Mad respect!!!